Category: Technology

Over the past few days, a few of my sites have been out of commission. Although I back up my sites religiously, I forgot to back up the site on September, 2, 2010 so if you left a comment on my last post where I talked about the back to school week and freelance writing. Well, your comment is gone. I do apologize for that.

Thanks to Google webmaster tools, I was made aware of the compromised sites, and I instantly alerted my hosting provider. My site was pulled offline for a few days; during the downtime, phishing files were removed, and my sites came online today, a few additional security measures have been put into place. I’ll be writing more on what interesting WordPress Plug-ins I’ve added, along with some of the other security features I’ve used in a later post. However, until then why don’t you check this site to see how you can increase the security to your WordPress site.

New Sites; Getting noticed & online monetization

Interestingly enough, before my sites went offline, one of my newest sites received a lot of legitimate activity. The first day, that website went live it received 90 hits, and a few people followed up with me via my contact form. Nothing too big, since I haven’t publicized the site, and I only commented at two sites using the brand new url.  I’ll be watching that website closely to see how it fairs once it matures.

As I mentioned in my last post, the new site focuses on delivering natural information in bite sized posts that are health related. Quite a change from Celebrate Life, where I can write for ages, I know. Anyway, I’m enjoying the site and the change in my writing style. Unlike this site, I’m monetized that as soon as it was released. The main reason is that site was strictly made to be monetized. It offers valuable information for those that land upon the site, and I’m thinking I most likely will sell a few of my eBooks there too.

I have another site within the works, that I most likely will publish within the next few weeks. Surprisingly it has nothing to do with what I usually write about; health, fitness, nutrition, Mac technology, or gaming. However, it’s something I became increasingly knowledgeable several months ago, being that I was in a situation that forced me to do a lot of research. Imagine my disappointment, when I came up empty a lot of times, or landed on sites that didn’t have a lot of information related to the subject? Fast forward a few months later, and I thought about the possibility of turning that lack of information to my advantage, by creating a one stop resource for everything related to that topic.  From an adsense perspective, that site might give some of my highest earning sites a run for their money, but time will tell.

Enjoying our Labor Day

Here’s hoping those in the States are having a great Labor Day. My daughter and I spent a lazy day around the house. Lot of yard work was done by myself, along with power washing the house. I love my gadgets.

Breakfast Club: Right on Track

I should have known this was going to happen, somehow in the midst of my cleaning I misplaced a library book. I have no clue where it could be, I searched all of my bookshelves, still nothing!

I remember having the book, I’m betting I set it down because I got distracted by something else. I eventually know I’ll stumble upon it, and I’m betting it will be in an odd place. The thing is, I don’t lose things often, so this is really driving me nuts, bah! Gaah!!!

Ebook readers are something I’ve been considering for several months. If I lost that then I’d be in trouble, but I haven’t lost an eletronic device yet.

If you asked me, a few years ago would I purchase an Ebook reader. The answer would have been NO! I want to hold a physical copy of a book in my hands, dang it! However, since I’ve been focusing on minimizing the amount of things I do have I’ve been giving it some serious thought. It simply makes sense. Will I miss my physical books? Yes, but I think I’ll get over it.  When I think of it, I already do a lot of reading on my MacBook Pro, for my clients and on personal time too. So what’s the big deal if I’m reading a book using an electronic device? Hmmm….

An added bonus is that I can also borrow Ebooks from the library. Even the library where I borrow my books, Baltimore County Public Library is offering this feature. How cool is that? Instead of having to physically go to the library I can download the book from my libraries website. When the book is due, it expires off my device.

Amazon’s Kindle

I’m thinking I’ll purchase an Ebook reader near (or perhaps a little after the Christmas season.) I’ve tried Amazon’s Kindle. I played with it for a few weeks, and even wrote a review about it on a technology website. Although it did everything it was supposed to do (you know serve as an ebook) I wished it did more. Also, I didn’t like how it looked. Yeah… silly (I know) but there you have it.

Apple’s iPad

I have been looking at the Apple iPad. With the iPad, I’ll be able to read any ebook available. I do like its looks, and more importantly, I can do more with it too. My daughter is involved in a lot of after-school activities. Mommy is there with her, usually with a book or my MacBook Pro (if I’m working on an urgent project for a client) in tow. It’s definitely not a “ohh shiny” purchase since there are numerous flashy things I do without. When I finally do make the purchase you won’t hear me complaining that the iPad doesn’t work just like a book.

Question: What do you think about the Ebook readers?

I enjoy video games, however, recently I really haven’t had a chance to play anything. You know how it is, at times you don’t get to indulge in your me time activities because there’s so much going on in your life. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about, jobs, family time, volunteering, working on a side project (in my case this website, and a few other things) gets into the way of doing some of the carefree activities like gaming, catching movies with friends, or curling up with a good book.

Video games, are one of my “me time” activities. I haven’t played them too much recently. I’m not sad, I simply have other things that take priority over gaming. However, I still keep up-to-date with the gaming news. Hellmode (one of my new favorite gaming sites by the way) posted that Steam is offering Alien Swarm for free. All you need to do is log on and download the game? Oh, you do have to have Windows. Sorry to all the Mac and Linux users out there. I won’t be playing it either, since I mainly play or my Mac or Xbox 360. If you aren’t a Steam member you can join for free. Simply sign up for an account at Steam’s website and your in business.

From Steam’s website…

Alien Swarm is a game and Source SDK release from a group of talented designers at Valve who were hired from the Mod community. Available free of charge, the game thrusts players into an epic bug hunt featuring a unique blend of co-op play and squad-level tactics. With your friends, form a squad of four distinct IAF Marine classes.

It’s always nice seeing Indy people recognized. I use a lot of Indy applications on my MacBook Pro, and have snagged a few Indy games in the past too. Earlier today, I logged onto steam to check out the video. I haven’t been on there since early July when I was playing Torchlight. The gameplay appealed to me, and if it were available for Mac users, it’s something I would download. If you want to learn more about the game, surf over to Hellmode and check out Ashelia’s writeup about Alien Swarm. It’s an excellent review, it almost makes me wish I had the time to play it.

In other news…

Upcoming screenshots of the garden, and the overabundance of produce we’ve reveived. I’m so thankful for the rain. Plums, tomatoes, eggplant, squash, cucmbers, cantaloupe, watermelon, blackberries, figs, etc., We’re truly blessed.

Here at Celebrate Life, checking out my Category section was a bit of an embarrassment. They were a big mess. There were times when I had posts listed under multiple categories. It’s something I didn’t like. However, I decided to push it out of my mind, and not think about other things. Your problems will magically disappear if you do that. Ok, that’s not true… They don’t go away, however, they can get bigger!

In my case, that’s exactly what happened. Although I completely ignored my category mess, it didn’t stop me from adding more. Yeah, yeah, I know that didn’t make any sense. My little darlings kept growing, and growing… it was out of control! Yes, in many cases those categories were repetitive. I had a hard time getting my “it’s the same but it isn’t the same” category naming tendencies under control. Let’s not even go into how many I had, mkay?

Yesterday, I took action, and eliminated a lot of categories. What caused this change of heart? Being a person who loves stats, I had already checked the effectiveness of the Categories via Google Analytics Site Overlay (very similar to Heatmap.) It confirmed my suspicions, my readers, rarely used my categories. The amount that do, was under 4%. That tag cloud I have? Well that doesn’t get used a lot either. I’m happy to say I’ve cut my categories down to nine. It’s simplistic, and not as confusing as before.

I’d recommend Google Site Analytics Site Overlay feature (or something similar) for anyone that is focused on building their virtual community. It lets you know what interests your readers, and where they are clicking too. With my older sites, I used it for many things, one of those being a spot that would get the most clicks for my Top Commenter’s. It’s always nice sending referrals their way.

Here’s something to think about… this site is still new the top way I’m getting traffic is simply by commenting on other peoples websites. I don’t comment on a lot of sites at the moment, my time is limited however when I actually do read what you write and am not giving you a canned answer with my response. I try to add to the conversation. It’s paid off since people have come to my site, that’s known as a referral.

In hindsight, I should have created my categories when I started this website, instead of creating them as I wrote.

If you’re a WordPress user and have the urge to decrease your categories. I’d like to recommend a WordPress Plug In that might make the transition a lot easier.

Recommended WordPress Plugin

Broken Link Checker created by Janis Elsts

It does exactly what it says, if you’re like myself and do a bit of internal linking, yes I linked to categories in some of my posts, chances are you might have a broken link. You want this WordPress plugin, seriously! This little addon will track them down for you and let you fix them. That it folks, after you’ve cleaned your categories to a respectable size, head on over to your PlugIns and click on the Broken Link Checker. You did install it right? No, what are you waiting for? If not grab it from the Plugin section in your admin tools, click on New, enter Broken Link Checker, install, activate, and you’re ready to go.

Of course, you can use this WordPress Plug in for more things than fixing your categories. I installed this a few weeks ago. I found a few broken links after the installation, and was able to update the links to point to the correct link in a few easy steps.

Cleaning up those broken category links will help out tremendously since your visitors won’t be tossed onto the dreaded 404 error page (which isn’t so dreadful if you have customized it.) For the record, I haven’t customized my 404 Error page yet, but it’s one of the things I’ll complete today.

Oh, the phrase Murder your Darlings, came from the excellent article by Rob Parnell.